[[quoteright:215:[[Theatre/MiseryJunction http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/oldpulp.jpg]]]]Tropes first documented after the invention of the steam engine (1698) and before the invention of the radio (1890).

This is the classic age of English literature, and of the penny dreadful: Sir Creator/WalterScott, Creator/JaneAusten and Creator/CharlesDickens, but also ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'', ''Literature/VarneyTheVampire'', the first SherlockHolmes novel, ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'', and the earliest ScienceFiction--to say nothing of the maudlin numbers that funded UsefulNotes/BenjaminDisraeli's political career. It is also the last time when books dominated popular entertainment, although many of these "books" were originally serialised in magazines, such as The Strand, Blackwood's etc.

This is also when many compilations of legends and fairy tales were collected and recorded, such as 19th-century Finnish work ''Literature/TheKalevala'', the Literature/ChildBallads, Creator/TheBrothersGrimm books, and most European FairyTale collections.----!!Tropes:[[index]]* AcidRefluxNightmare: ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'', 1843* AdvancedAncientAcropolis: ''Apoikis'' by [[Creator/KurdLasswitz Kurd Laßwitz]], 1882* AdventurerArchaeologist: 19th-century gothic horror* AllLoveIsUnrequited: Creator/GilbertAndSullivan* AloneWithThePsycho: ''Great Expectations'', Creator/CharlesDickens, 1860-1861* TheAlternet: Creator/JulesVerne's ''Literature/ParisInTheTwentiethCentury'' (written in 1863, though not published until 1994), banks communicate via a linked network of fax-style document machines.* AndThereWasMuchRejoicing: ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'', 1843* BeautifulAllAlong: "Literature/TheUglyDuckling" (1843) and "Literature/TheRoughFacedGirl" (at least 1884).* BecomeARealBoy: ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfPinocchio'', early 1880s* BlackBestFriend: ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn'', MarkTwain, 1876* BlindAndTheBeast: ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'' by Mary Shelley* BoxingKangaroo: An actual practice of the 1800s.* BrainFever: Happens to the doctor in ''Frankenstein''. Accidentally invoked in ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn''.* BrandNameTakeover: Kerosene, 1854* BriarPatching: West African {{Anansi}} stories, known in North America as Uncle Remus.* CarMeetsHouse: The first car accident in history was one of these. In 1771 a prototype steam-powered car crashed through the wall of a French military building. The accident [[{{Pun}} wrecked]] its inventor's reputation.* CastsNoShadow: The protagonist of ''Peter Schlemihl's Miraculous Tale'' (1814) by Adelbert von Chamisso sells his shadow to a mysterious stranger in exchange for a purse that never gets empty.* CatapultNightmare: ''Literature/TreasureIsland'', 1881* CatScare: ''God's Judgment on a Wicked Bishop'' by Robert Southey, 1799* ChainedToARailway: "Captain Tom's Fright," 1867* ColonelBadass: Max Piccolomini from ''Theatre/{{Wallenstein}}'', 1799.* ColorMeBlack: The Inky Boys from ''Literature/DerStruwwelpeter'', 1845.* DeliveryStork: Victorian English folklore* DepthDeception: "Literature/TheSphinx," short story by Creator/EdgarAllanPoe, 1850* DomedHometown: ''Literature/ThreeHundredYearsHence'' by William Delisle Hay, 1881* DoomItYourself: ''Literature/ThreeMenInABoat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)'' by Jerome K. Jerome, 1889* DownToTheLastPlay: "Literature/CaseyAtTheBat," Ernest Thayer, 1888* DramaticSpotlight: Started with the use of 'limelight' (created by directing an oxygen-hydrogen flame at calcium oxide--i.e. lime--causing the lime to incandesce bright white) at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in 1837.* EvilHand: Fairy tale about three surgeons recorded by Creator/TheBrothersGrimm.* EvilLaugh: ''Faust'', Charles Gounod, 1859* ExplosiveOverclocking: The steam engine, bringing this to the brink of OlderThanSteam without actually crossing the line.* FairytaleWeddingDress: [[UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria Queen Vicky]] wore a white dress in 1840 -- before, a wedding dress was otherwise indistinguishable from a regular PimpedOutDress.* FantasticLegalWeirdness: In one of his articles, Creator/ThomasPaine (1737-1809) briefly wonders about the risen saints mentioned in [[Literature/TheBible the Gospel of Matthew]]: did they try to reclaim their property and spouses, or just go back into their graves after walking around Jerusalem? The Gospel [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse doesn't say]].* FantasyConflictCounterpart: ''Literature/TheBegumsMillions'', Creator/JulesVerne, 1879, with two fictional cities standing in for France and Germany.* FictionalUnitedNations: "Locksley Hall" by Creator/AlfredLordTennyson predicts "the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world".* FireKeepsItDead: Vampires in GothicHorror literature (the UrExample being ''Literature/VarneyTheVampire'', c. 1845) had to be burned to keep them from coming back to life after being staked and beheaded.* FishOutOfTemporalWater: ''Literature/AConnecticutYankeeInKingArthursCourt'', MarkTwain, 1889* FourTemperamentEnsemble: ''Literature/TheThreeMusketeers'', 1844* FowlMouthedParrot: In real life one of the earliest documented instances was President Andrew Jackson's pet parrot, which had to be removed from his funeral because it wouldn't stop swearing (in two languages, no less).* FrankensteinsMonster: The TropeNamer* FreakyFridayFlip: F. Anstey's ''[[Literature/ViceVersaALessonToFathers Vice Versa: A Lesson to Fathers]]'' 1882* FreakyIsCool: ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}''* GivingRadioToTheRomans: ''A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'', MarkTwain, 1889* GoingDownWithTheShip: The trope is derived from Age of Sail maritime salvage laws, which said that if a ship was abandoned by all crew but didn't sink, it was first come, first serve on the ship and its cargo.* GothicHorror: Officially begins with the publication of TropeMaker ''Literature/TheCastleOfOtranto'' (Horace Walpole, 1764)* GreatWhiteHunter: Ned Land in ''Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'' (1869).* TheGrotesque: ''Literature/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'', 1831* HasTwoMommies: The [[UsefulNotes/DynastiesFromShangToQing Guangxu Emperor]] of China (1871-1908) was raised by two mothers, Ci'an and Cixi, both widows of a previous emperor.* HauntedCastle: ''Literature/TheCastleOfOtranto'', 1764* HeartTrauma: "Literature/TheSnowQueen" by Creator/HansChristianAndersen, 1845* HeroAntagonist: Porfiry Petrovich in ''Literature/CrimeAndPunishment''* {{Hikikomori}}: ''Literature/{{Oblomov}}'' by Ivan Goncharov, 1859* HistoricalInJoke: ''Literature/TheThreeMusketeers'', 1844; possibly its source material in 1700.* IDoNotOwn: Creator/LordByron's ''Literature/DonJuan'', 1824* IllGirl: Jane Fairfax in ''Literature/Emma'', 1815* ImADoctorNotAPlaceholder: ''Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'' by Creator/JulesVerne, 1869* ImGoingToHellForThis: ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' (1885) is the TropeNamer.* InspectorJavert: ''Literature/LesMiserables'', 1862 is the TropeNamer.* InterruptedSuicide: Twice in ''[[Theatre/TheMagicFlute Die Zauberflöte]]'' by Creator/WolfgangAmadeusMozart, 1791* JungleOpera: ''Literature/KingSolomonsMines'', 1885* {{Leitmotif}}: Term coined by a critic describing Carl Maria von Weber's classical compositions, 1871, but Weber died in 1826.* LemonyNarrator: ''Literature/TristramShandy'' by Laurence Sterne (1759-1767) and ''Literature/JacquesTheFatalist'' by Denis Diderot (1765-1780).* LesbianVampire: In ''Literature/{{Carmilla}}'' (1872) by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, the vampire Carmilla only feeds off young women she falls in love with. Some already see a lesbian subtext in the unfinished poem "Christabel" by Creator/SamuelTaylorColeridge (c. 1797–1801), in which the adolescent heroine meets a mysterious girl who possibly is a vampire, or in the character of Miss Clara Crofton in ''Literature/VarneyTheVampire'' by James Malcolm Rymer (c. 1845–47), whose only confirmed victim is a girl.* LiteraryAllusionTitle: ''Literature/FarFromTheMaddingCrowd'' by Creator/ThomasHardy (1874) and "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" by Robert Browning (1855).* LivingToys: ''Literature/TheNutcrackerAndTheMouseKing'' by Creator/ETAHoffmann, 1816.* LyricalDissonance: The song "My Grandfather's Clock," written in 1876.* MadScientist: In "Literature/TheSandman" (1816), the alchemist Coppelius and the physicist Professor Spalanzani are concerned with [[CreatingLife creating an artifical human]]. In the same year, Creator/MaryShelley started to work on ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'' (1818), in which Victor Frankenstein succeeds in the same endeavour.* MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter: Olimpia in ''Literature/TheSandman'' (although she is a subversion), 1816.* MadwomanInTheAttic: ''Literature/JaneEyre'', by Charlotte Brontë, 1847.* ManEatingPlant: Early examples include a giant flytrap in Creator/ArthurConanDoyle's short story "The American's Tale" (1879) and the "man-eating tree of Madagascar," a newspaper hoax born in 1881.* ManInAKilt: [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kiltsmall_5183.GIF The earliest depictions of men in kilts]] as {{Fanservice}} date back to UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars.* MessageInABottle: Chunosuke Matsuyama wrote one in 1784 after a shipwreck in the Pacific.* MileHighClub: Rumours of people having sex in airborne vessels first circulated in 1785, after the allegedly first female balloonist, a certain Mrs Sage, had completed a flight in a hot air balloon together with a certain Mr Biggin. The idea of it being a kind of sexual goal for men also dates from the period, at least according to a certain eighteenth-century wager book quoted on ''Series/{{QI}}'':-->'''Stephen Fry''': "Lord Cholmondely has given two guineas to Lord Derby, to receive 500 guineas whenever his lordship 'plays hospitals' with a woman in a balloon 1,000 yards from the Earth." For "plays hospitals with" I think you can insert your own--word.* MiraculousMalfunction: ''Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde'', 1886* MistakenForSpecialGuest: ''Theatre/TheInspectorGeneral'' by Creator/NikolaiGogol, 1836, although a similar plot-twist already was used in ''Die deutschen Kleinstädter'' ("The German Small-Towners", 1802) by German-Russian author August von Kotzebue.* MustHaveCaffeine: Bach's ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schweigt_stille,_plaudert_nicht,_BWV_211 Coffee Cantata]]'' 1732-1734, a miniature opera dedicated to caffeine addiction.* NaughtyTentacles: 1820 woodcut by Hokusai* NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight: Tchaikovsky's opera ''[[http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=131 Mazeppa]]'', 1884, at least for the modern codified trope. * NoOntologicalInertia: The stepmother's poisons have none in Creator/TheBrothersGrimm fairy tale "Snowdrop" (a.k.a. Snow White).* NotTheNessie: Early attacks by the ''Nautilus'' in ''Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'' (1869) were blamed on a giant narwhal.* NotWearingPantsDream: ''The Dream of Councillor Popov'', [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksey_Konstantinovich_Tolstoy Alexey Tolstoy]], 1873* TheNounAndTheNoun: Many of Creator/JaneAusten's novels.* NowItsMyTurn: Henry Fielding's ''Literature/JosephAndrews'', 1742* OccultDetective: Dr. Martin Hesselius from Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's ''In A Glass Darkly'', 1872.* OhWaitThisIsMyGroceryList: Creator/JaneAusten's ''Literature/NorthangerAbbey'', 1817. Catherine, having read way too many Gothic novels, mistakes a laundry list it's too dark to read for something lurid such as a suicide note.* TheOldConvict: ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'', 1844* OpenSesame: Literal words in "Literature/AliBabaAndTheFortyThieves", added to ''Literature/TheArabianNights'' in the 18th century.* PensieveFlashback: ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'', 1843* PersonalRaincloud: "The Devotee to Whom Allah Gave a Cloud for Service and the Devout King" from ''Literature/TheArabianNights'', 19th century* PirateParrot: ''Literature/TreasureIsland'', 1881* PlayingDrunk: ''Theatre/TheBarberOfSeville'', 1816* PostApocalypticDog: Lord Byron's poem "Darkness," 1816.* ThePratfall: Shows up in vaudeville and music hall theater.* PrincessClassic: Supposedly Victorian, and already deconstructed by Creator/MarkTwain in ''Literature/AConnecticutYankeeInKingArthursCourt'' (1889).* RaceAgainstTheClock: ''Literature/AroundTheWorldInEightyDays'', 1872* RamblingOldManMonologue: ''Literature/TheRimeOfTheAncientMariner'' by Creator/SamuelTaylorColeridge, 1798* RashomonStyle: ''Literature/ThePrivateMemoirsAndConfessionsOfAJustifiedSinner'', by James Hogg, 1824* RearWindowInvestigation: Creator/JaneAusten's ''Literature/NorthangerAbbey''.* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: Creator/MarkTwain said similar words when he was mistakenly declared dead in the 1880s. He also wrote such a situation into ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn''.* RightOnTheTick: ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'', 1843* RiverOfInsanity: "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Livingstone Doctor Livingston, I presume?]]"* RoboticReveal:''Literature/TheSandman'' by E.T.A. Hoffmann, 1816* SalvagePirates: ''Literature/RobinsonCrusoe'', 1719* SaveTheVillain: ''Literature/TheWomanInWhite'' Creator/WilkieCollins, 1859* ScienceIsUseless: The legend of John Henry from the mid-19th century: man with sledgehammers digs a tunnel faster than a steam-powered drilling rig and dies.* ScrapbookStory: Goes back at least to ''Tomcat Murr'' by Creator/ETAHoffmann (1819); as the EpistolaryNovel it is OlderThanSteam.* SeadogPegLeg: See the pirates trope above.* SoMuchForStealth: ''Literature/TheLeatherstockingTales'' by James Fenimore Cooper, 1820s, possibly older.* SoaplandChristmas: ''Theatre/ADollsHouse'' by Creator/HenrikIbsen, c. 1879* SplitPersonality: In ''Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde'' (1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson, the reputable Dr Jekyll creates a potion that transforms him into the criminal brute Edward Hyde, a manifestation of the bad side of Jekyll's character. Also a possible interpretation of ''Literature/ThePrivateMemoirsAndConfessionsOfAJustifiedSinner'' (1824) by James Hogg, in which the protagonist is encouraged to commit crimes by the mysterious Gil-Martin, who may or may not be a figment of his own imagination.* StockYuck (Inedible Christmas Fruitcakes): "Miss Fogarty's Christmas Cake," 1883* StringyHairedGhostGirl: "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ghost_of_Oyuki The Ghost of Oyuki]]," c. 1750* SuperPoweredRobotMeterMaids: ''Frankenstein'', 1816* SympatheticMurderer: The monster in ''Frankenstein'' when killing his creator.* TextbookHumor: Johnson's ''Dictionary'' (1755) has entries such as "Lexicographer: a writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge that busies himself in tracing the original and detailing the signification of words."* TomatoInTheMirror: "William Wilson" by Creator/EdgarAllanPoe, 1839* TomboyishName: Josephine "Jo" March of ''Literature/LittleWomen'', 1868, by Louisa May Alcott* TownWithADarkSecret: ''Germelshausen'', 1800s, by Friedrich Gerstäcker, source for ''Brigadoon''.* TrappedInThePast: ''A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court,'' 1889* TrueLovesKiss: Creator/TheBrothersGrimm version of "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_True_Bride The True Bride]]" -- but ''not'' the original versions of "Snow White," "Sleeping Beauty," or "Frog Prince."* {{Ubermensch}}: ''Literature/CrimeAndPunishment'', Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1866* UnconventionalFormatting: ''Literature/TristramShandy'', 1767* VampiresAreSexGods: "Literature/TheVampyre'', J. William Polidori, 1819* VictoriasSecretCompartment: The opera ''Theatre/DieFledermaus'' by Johann Strauss II, 1871* WackyCravings: This happens in the European fairy tales "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapunzel Rapunzel]]" and "[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/rapunzel/stories/petros.html Petrosinella]]," both first recorded during the early 19th century.* WalkThePlank: Francis Grose's ''Literature/DictionaryOfTheVulgarTongue'', 1788* TheWallsAreClosingIn: "The Pit and the Pendulum" by Creator/EdgarAllanPoe, 1842* TheWatson: Watson's portrayal as this goes back to ''Literature/AStudyInScarlet'' by Arthur Conan Doyle, 1887* WithThisHerring: "Literature/TheBraveLittleTailor," a European folktale collected by Creator/TheBrothersGrimm.* WhenIWasYourAge: Typical in societies when a culture changes as a result of new technology, enough to result in a [[TheGenerationGap Generation Gap]] like the one from the GrandUnifiedTimeline/FirstIndustrialRevolution, in contrast with the gradually shifting {{Generation Xerox}}s that came before.* WorkingOnTheChainGang: ''Literature/LesMiserables'', 1862* WrongGuyFirst: Jane Austen's writing, or earlier.* YearX: ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'' by Mary Shelley, 1818. Later ''Literature/TreasureIsland'' by Robert Lewis Stevenson, 1883. Incidentally, both are set in "17--".* YourCostumeNeedsWork: "Literature/MasqueOfTheRedDeath" by Edgar Allan Poe, 1842* ZillionDollarBill: TheSampo in ''Literature/TheKalevala''.[[/index]]